Stop mass redundancies for UCL cleaners
More than 100 redundancies are being planned for cleaners at UCL. Below is a message from our sister trade union, IWGB, outlining the plans in more detail.
These redundancies form part of a “sweeping transformation” to how our campus and student halls are cleaned – namely a huge reduction in the amount of cleaning being performed, which will lead to a more messy, dirty and potentially more hazardous campus.
This will have an enormous impact on staff and students, but there has been no meaningful consultation and the proposals are being rushed through in August while most people are on leave.
During the Covid lockdown our cleaning, catering and portering colleagues kept staff and students safe. This is a terrible way to treat long-serving and low-paid members of the university community. UCL should be bringing these staff in-house rather than seeking to cut corners and cutting staff.
Please consider taking action to support our colleagues in the cleaning teams by:
- Sharing this email with colleagues at UCL
- Using this IWGB template to send an email to the Provost
- Joining cleaners for a protest on Wednesday 27th August at 9am at John Dodgson House, Bidborough St, WC1H 9BL
- Make a donation to their fighting fund (details below)
UCL UCU Executive Committee
Appendix: Message from the IWGB
UCL’s subcontractor Sodexo has announced plans to make mass redundancies for UCL cleaners. That will mean over 100 cleaners losing their jobs and a dirty campus for everyone else!
Monica: “This will affect us all. I am a single mother; I have to put food on the table, be there for my child, pay the bills, the rent… They don’t care about any of this or how hard it’ll be to find a job that will allow me to take care of my kid. They are gonna cut all zero-hour contracts, such as mine, and put us in an impossible position.”
Miguel: “We work together with our relatives (father, mother, son, wife, husband). For example, my wife also works, but she is a casual worker, meaning she has no contract. This group is the first to be laid off, and then I have a contract that is renewable every three months and I am at risk of redundancy. If I am laid off, how will my family survive?”
What is happening?
In August 2025, UCL and Sodexo announced plans to make dramatic cuts to cleaning services at UCL and across students’ halls of residence. UCL say that these redundancies are part of a modernisation and cost-cutting agenda. But the university is in a very strong financial position, with student numbers up from 38,000 in 2015/16 to 52,000 last year.
- Over a hundred cleaners will lose their jobs. Sodexo has proposed to cut 143 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) cleaners from the main campus team and 52 FTE from the halls of residence cleaning team. Campus cleaners on temporary and casual contracts will not even receive any redundancy pay. Outsourced cleaning staff at UCL are disproportionately Black, brown and migrant women who already endure precarious circumstances to support themselves and their families.
- Those who keep their jobs will be further overworked. Understaffing and overwork are already serious issues for cleaners, who struggle to safely complete their tasks at current team sizes. Workloads will not change even as the number of FTE cleaners is slashed.
- Campus and halls will be less clean. UCL reports that in a recent Estates Services Satisfaction Survey, “only 22% of users were very satisfied with cleanliness.” This is because cleaners are already extremely overworked and the workforce has already been downsized in many buildings. In their proposal, however, Sodexo have explicitly stated that they will “reduce the frequency of core cleaning” by “removing unnecessary daily visits”. Cleaners will be told to “only clean clear surfaces and NOT to remove cups/rubbish/food etc,” and other staff will instead have to ensure that “all papers, objects & rubbish [are] removed daily.”
- Sodexo and UCL profit at students’ and workers’ expense. While the number of maintenance tickets submitted in halls of residence hit a record high last year (including 223 reports of mould), UCL made a surplus of £13 million on housing provision. Budget cuts to cleaning and annual increases in student fees and rent are lining UCL and Sodexo’s pockets.
- Cleaners made redundant will probably be replaced by agency staff. These workers will be on even worse terms and conditions than Sodexo employees, just like what has happened with the security team since the 2023 restructure.
What can you do?
- Share this email with colleagues at UCL and write to your Head of Department raising your concerns. If you’re up for organising a petition in your building / department along these lines, then reply to this email to let us know!
- Use this template to send an email to the Provost
- Join cleaners for a protest on Wednesday 27th August at 9am at John Dodgson House, Bidborough St, WC1H 9BL.
- Donate to our fighting fund so that cleaners can take strike action to protect their jobs
